Rejuvinated

Yesterday I had a couple hours to kill after work until I picked Grace up at track practice.

It doesn't happen often that I'm alone.

I went uptown with a purpose, but it turned into a relaxing jaunt.

There is a second hand shop that I sell our clothes too, and I wanted to check my account and see if I had any money in it.

I headed up there, and got swept away by the general "cuteness" of the downtown.

There is a whole alley of "creative graffiti."

Cool old fashioned lighting, and ruby red benches.

If I would've had time, I would've stopped by the second hand bookstore, but I got to looking at clothes, and ran out of time before I had to trek to the other side of town to get Grace.

It was a refreshing time alone. 

It needs to happen more often!

My Grade would be an F

If I were to be graded lately on the frequency of my posts, I'd probably recieve a big 'ol F.

Sorry about that...since last Wednesday, the days have flown by.  So....

I'm happy to say, that while I sit here watching one of my favs...(Castle), I'm already dreaming of Spring Break next week, and how that will make my menu preparing that much easier.

I've already been sitting here for the last couple of hours planning my menu for the next week, matching it up to the supermarket sale flyers, and what I have in my pantry.

I'm feeling a little like this.

(This picture makes me laugh.)

I think I've got the menu nailed down, though, and unfortunately my budget has to be bigger this week since we'll be home for lunch...Ugh....

We're having pizza, sweet and sour chicken with eggrolls, homemade chicken nuggets, breakfast sandwiches and strawberries, spaghetti and bread, and two Easter meals to name a few.

It's one of the hardest things to do every week, match up my meal plan with my grocery budget.

But if I didn't, it would put us in the hole.

Food has gotten SO EXPENSIVE, and that's what's the hardest to swallow.

How do you deal with menu planning and the cost?  I'd LOVE to know some insider tips.

Swirling in my head

Once in awhile, I have a burst of creativity.

I need to harness it, or it goes away if I'm really busy.

I'm trying to separate my ideas for my Etsy shop and the craft booth my cousins and I will have this summer.

Bigger things for the craft booth, smaller, easier things to ship for the Etsy store.

I added some things tonight to the store that I will also have at the craft booth.

What do you think?

This is a new item I've seen splashed all over Pinterest.com, and which is really cool, and I'm so excited about it.

Everytime I list a bulletin board, they sell very quickly, so this is a new fabric covered cork board.

Embellished frames are always my favorite, and I love the fabric flowers.

If you would or could, which would you pick?

So NOT my thing

So, Grace started track on Friday this past week.

She spent the night at her friend's house, so I didn't see her till Saturday, and she cracked me up with her tales of woe.

Her body HURT so bad, could I push her to a standing position from the couch.  I'm pretty sure I heard "Help me Mamma!"  A couple times, if not more this weekend.

Her legs COULDN'T BEND, could I help her up.

Hilarious.  The girl had me in stitches the whole weekend.

Apparently track practice is a whole lot different than cheerleading practice.

Works different muscles or something.  :-)

So, today it shocked me when she told us at lunch that she was gonna go running down our road today.

Yeah, if I haven't already said, we live on a 2 mile (or more, I'm not really sure) stretch of dirt road that no one other than the 6 of us who live on it, use.  So, it's pretty safe to run down, or walk, or ride bike.

I told her I would walk with her.  NOT RUN.  WALK.  I HATE running.  I mean literally, HATE running.

So, I walked while she ran up ahead of me.

Rudy and I walked, in the sunshine (hello again...it's been awhile sun...), and in the crisp almost spring air.

Well, Rudy would sometimes walk beside me, most mostly run ahead and turn around and wait for me, then run ahead again.  He was SO HAPPY we were taking him for a walk.

Crazy dog.

It was so great to see the blue sky and clouds again.  It really has been the most depressing winter.

As you can see, Grace lapped me...but that's ok.  I was happy being outside, listening to my tunes, and taking a walk.

And for as much as my 13 year old can exasperate me, she can also bring me to my knees frequently with laughter.  She really is quite funny.

Oh, and she loves getting her picture taken, when its HER idea.

 I can't tell you how much the sunshine did for my soul today.

I WILL be able to make it until warmer weather...I hope.

I'm itching to get my hands in the soil.  Hopefully in a week and a half when it's spring break, I can at least get my flower beds cleaned out and ready.

I'm crossing my fingers!

Hope you enjoyed the sun today.

Friday Five

I have traded one teenage girl for 5 -12 year old boys...doesn't seem even does it?

After track practice, Grace went home to spend the night with a couple of her BFF's and Evan is having his friends over for a belated birthday party.

He turned 12 this past Tuesday.

Three of them are spending the night.

It might get loud., so to escape, I'm picking my first 5 favorites from my Pinterest.com feed today.

This makes me want to buy a house by the sea.    The muted colors are just beautiful.

Just proves all you need to do to any 'ol jar is add some cute paper and a ribbon or twine in this case.  Easy.

My love affair with Coach bags continues.  I don't actually own one because of the price...but I can dream can't I?

This and it's twin would be perfect hanging over the enamel topped table I use as my kitchen island.

and lastly...

I've been doing a lot of dreaming of how I want my new patio out back to look.  I have a table similar to this, only painted...now...for some chairs.

So, what are your 5 favorite things?

A "Hopefully" Spring Repeat

Yesterday I finally took my "winter" wreath off the door.

The warm warmer air was telling me to.

I pulled out my favorite wreath from storage in the basement, and realized over the last couple years, my favorite fabric "roses" were quite faded.

I took them off, and turned them over, and they were good as new.

Since this is one of my favorite crafts I've ever done, and since I will be making plenty of these to sell at our craft booth this summer, I thought I would revive one of my past posts.

The original post can be found here.

Here is the part showing how I made this little cutie...

So, the other night, I bought another trusty foam circle, and began dreaming.

I checked out "Spring wreath" and "Burlap wreath" on Pinterest.com. (If you haven't perused this site ladies, you MUST. Every idea known to man is out there.)

I came up with some of these beauties.... (first one found here)

burlap wreath found here

There were hundreds more, but I liked these the best by far.

They gave me an idea, which is what I needed in the first place.

I already had the burlapy material, and the fabric, and some ribbon, I just needed it to all come together.

So, last night, I got to work.

I got out the supplies, and started ripping the burlap into strips.

Then I started wrapping and hot gluing.

Leaving plenty of fraying as I went.


Until it was totally wrapped.


Next I started making the rosettes I wanted all over the wreath.

First you tie a knot in the middle of whatever length of material you are using...



and twist the sides together (ignore the short stubby hands here. They were never intended to be hand models!)




Then just wrap the material around the knot, hot gluing all the time...

(try NOT to burn yourself like I did about 100 times!)


You'll end up with something like this.



I did this with all the material I wanted to incorporate, and I used ALL colors since Spring IS all colors!




I kept going until it looked like this. I just used my sewing pins to pin all the rosettes on.


I hung it on the door and realized it needed something else, so I added some crocheted ribbon that I had. I think it finished it out nicely. Total cost for the wreath, considering I had everything but the foam circle...$4.99!



My door looks a lot less naked/bland. Except for those numbers on the door, representing our address. Brent tells me they remind him of a prison number. I agree a little. It didn't come out really as I intended last fall, but I have some ideas.


Now, the wreath is the same, but the door is missing the "prison style" numbers that my husband hated.

Don't you want to go out and make your "own" wreath.

Enjoy!

A Snow Day for ALL!

Last night we got some snow.

It was probably only about 6 inches or so, but it was HEAVY, and then it got windy, and DRIFTED.

A LOT.

So, first we had a 2-hour delay called, then a cancellation.

I got to stay home today too, and I'll make it up when the kids have to at the end of April.

Funny, ironic thing is...it's MARCH.  Oh well, comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb, right?

So, along with some household chores, I started some crafts.

I needed to make some more bulletin boards for my ETSY shop, and for the craft booth my cousins and I will have starting in May for a couple times over the summer.

I've got a stockpile of supplies, waiting to be molded into something else...

Little glass jars, picture frames, yards of fabric.

I started painting some frames.

 

You never know what color you may get when you start mixing.

I guess that's half the fun.

'Course you always need a cup of coffee and you usually get a little "dirty."  At least I do.

While the paint was drying, I even finished a small project that's been waiting for awhile.

About a month ago, while on a trip with two good friends, I picked up some old county fair ribbons and a  pendant.  The other one I already had.

It was time to make some bunting out of them for the space above the bookshelf.

The look was just what I wanted.

Now, I need to start another coat of paint on the frames...more later.